Charred Rosemary Pork Chops

Hello World !

It feels good to finally put my feet up and kind of relax. Actually I have some work to get done tonight before I call it a day. It has been very busy today. I ran errands with the girl but forgot to plan her lunch before she was picked up for school by a friend. I stopped at the store and picked up a lunchable for her to eat as I shopped for some groceries. What a terrible mother I am...hey better than McDonalds right ???

I then had to meet my friend to pick up the girl for school, race over to see my bestest buddy Stacey for Thai food yum ! yum ! Then off to the dentist, back home to sew more aroma therapy bags, 3 loads of laundry, mop the floors and whip up this amazing dinner.

So another happy place for me is the kitchen. I love love love to cook. The kids helped with other chores while I cooked. Here is the recipe for you to try out. Quick meal with some prep work  but can be done in steps and up to a day ahead.

I served this up with mashed potatoes and green beans stirred in with almonds.

To start with :

Pork Chops

Ingredients

• pork chops 
• 4 T granulated sugar
• 1 T garlic, minced 
• 3 Serrano chilies, minced 
• 2 T rosemary, chopped 
• 3 T parsley, chopped 
• 1½  oz. olive oil 
• 1 T kosher salt
• 2 tsp. black pepper

Directions

Place pork chops in a large bowl and reserve. In a blender add sugar,garlic, chilies, rosemary, parsley, olive oil, salt and pepper; macerate until smooth. I also added 2 T of chipolte pepper spice . (Can be found in spice aisle next to chilli seasoning ) Just thought I woud experiment a little. 

Rub pork chops generously with mixture and let stand for 20 minutes if possible.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Grill pork chops over an open flame or sauté, to medium-rare. Be careful not to over-caramelize (the sugar in the rub will burn if left on the fire too long). Once a golden color is achieved transfer to the oven and roast until internal temperatures reaches 125°F. Let rest 3 minutes before serving.

I scooped some mashed potatoes on the bottom of a deep plate. Top with Pork chop and add green beans for some color and drizzle sauce. 

For Sauce :

2 T parsley, chopped 

• 1 T oregano
• 1 T thyme
• 1 tsp. red chili flake
• 6 T extra virgin olive oil
• 2 T aged sherry vinegar
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• ½ tsp. black pepper

Directions

In a mixing bowl add parsley, oregano, thyme, chili, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Whisk and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour before serving.

Not sure I like the sauce very much but hubby did so that is all that matters. We cracked open a special bottle of South African wine from the 2010 World Cup collection... A romantic dinner for two in the middle of the week. He may even score tonight once again LOL ! To top it off we had some wonderful South African chocolate aaahhh !!! what more can a lady ask for ..a backrub ??? Maybe I will be lucky.

Remember the key ingredient to cooking. You can never run out of it and it can be found in your HEART , it is " LOVE " 

I have very fond memories from my childhood days cooking with my mom. She always said that if you cooked with love , no matter what you make it will always taste mmhhmmmhhh GOOOOOOOODDDDD!!!!!

So my secret ingredient is " LOVE " 

Hope you give this a try.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you had a productive day and your TO DO LIST has a ton of strike offs like mine does. Let's face it ...we will never get to the bottom of it as we keep adding stuff to it.

Free Spirit XOXOXOX !!!!!

Aroma Therapy neck wraps

Hello World !

24 hours in a day
1440 minutes in a day 
86 400 seconds in a day

How productive are you ? How are you using your time ? I have been busy busy... 

Work is frustrating lately. Been dealing with short sales and negotiating with the banks and I have managed to relieve my seller of the deficiency on her loan. Hoping to close in 45 days. Every time expectations and dead lines are met there is another hurdle. I am hoping for this to finally close. Are you upside in your home ? Ask me how I can help ???

Other than devoting my time to work , cub scouts has been bust too and lots of projects with the boys and my personal projects with kids. I have so many sewing projects now it is crazy. I need to stop starting a new one before I finish one in progress.

My latest project is aroma therapy neck wraps. I have a square bag for myself but the kids have been fighting over mine so I decided to each of them one. I re-searched this for a while and did not find a pattern anywhere. I drew mine on muslin free hand and I am so happy with myself. If you look at the bottom right picture you will see my pattern.


Here is a sample of silk brocades I purchased today. I love it when I can use a 50 % coupon and a 20 % coupon of your total purchase at Joann Fabrics. Print your coupon. See end of blog post.Save some money and create something beautiful.

Fabric makes me happy....I love that I can take a beautiful piece of fabric, cut it up and create something beautiful, useful and

the joy it brings to my kids is priceless !

Pravan loves my sewing machine and he is really getting good at driving it on his own. 

He helped me measure and mix and fill the bag. I sewed a channel in the bag so the filling will be evenly distributed. As you can see I used flaxseed, rice and freshly dried lavender. This is on of four bags. I will post part 2 when I sew one for the girl. Thanks for stopping by. Let me know if you have any questions on how to make one of these.

This coupon ends soon. 

Thanks for stopping by 

Free Spirit xoxoxoxo 

I heart Faces {Red - In support of Go Red For Women)

This is my first entry for I heart faces. Hope you like this picture as much as I do. For a while now I have lurked on the site and felt like a stalker of so many talented photographers out there.

I love taking pics and I am still learning so much. I love all the inspiration out there. Clickhappy is what my family calls me and viewing life through the lens is a daily activity and an absolute pleasure. I look forward to my adventure hopping to each of your blogs and learning a thing or two along the way.

Thanks for taking a peek at my work.

Thanks for stopping by.

I heart you !

K*I*S*S


Keep it simple Sweetie


When will I learn... I had a blast with this photo shoot.


I entered this photo in the I heart faces blog... never done that before so I am giving it a try. I was just disappointed that I had to crop the picture for the blog.

Here is my creation for Valentines Day cards. This was a spin from another blog. You can view HERE Thanks for sharing your creativity.

Happy Valentines day and thanks for stopping by.

Snipits

Dear World,

Happy New Year ! I took a break over the holidays from the world of technology.I have several posts I will make in the week ahead that will be related to xmas. Better late than never but here is a little something I wanted to share from this week.

STOP !! STOP !!! Wait what am I thinking ? Should I really cut her hair. Well I have been saying this for the last four years. I had to bite the bullet and just do it. I also had to talk Girly into trimming her hair.


This week I scheduled to take Girly to the hair salon..Her hair was almost to her bottom but it really is very thin. It is a myth that your hair will grow in thicker if you trim it. However it does appear healthier and thicker. I was willing to cut off as much as four inches so her hair will look healthier and be even.


Once I got to the salon I asked for some advice and I was told it was better to cut it where is was thinning out and uneven. Girly is still in pre-school and she already has such long hair. I finally talked myself into trimming it as I know it will grow again. It is a very traditional and cultural thing for me to have beautiful long hair. 


When I was a little girl I remember my mom trimming my hair once a month. I had to wrap up the hair and then I usually went on a search for a banana tree in the neighborhood. I loved in an apartment complex close to the railroad tracks and their were plenty of banana trees along the tracks. 

I suppose it is an old wives tale. I was told to find a banana leaf that was still closed. I had to slip the carefully wrapped up hair in the leaf. My mother told me that my hair would grow as the leaf opened up.Well my hair certainly grew. It was all the way down to my ankles, so I believed in this old wives tale growing up. Traditionally all the little girls had their hair in braids everyday for school with silk ribbons and it was covered in coconut oil. Another old wives tale. The oil helps your hair grow. I think I believe that the oil can moisturize and nourish your hair but my hair grew as any body else's hair would grow.


Now I am a mom myself and living in the U.S I do not follow many or should I say ANY of the Indian customs , but I did decided to finally trim my little girls hair. This is her second trim in almost five years. We went to a super fun kids hair salon in Reno called Snipits. Check it out HERE

It is a bright fun place and makes me want to be a kid.

Before 

                                                          six inches cut
                                                    

AFTER                                            

                                         
I even got her a mini manicure and we had a very special date and today was all about her. If you live in Reno I highly recommend this place. First she got a fun pass and then she got to watch a movie while they trimmed her hair. 

When they are done the kids have to push the card into a slot and they watch the needle move. 

 This contraption then spits out a toy. Girly's favorite part. 

We finished the day with lunch together , just the two of US.She is one happy girl. Now I will have to get used to the fact that I snipped off six inches of her long beautiful hair.




Mwah !!! Thanks for stopping by. I would love to hear your feedback.

It's not the decorations or shopping that make me crazy, it's the expectations that I've attached to those things. I've been listening to my inner "Should!" without even recognizing it. This voice tells me what I'm supposed to do.

This is not the Mommy Olympics. Although every moment of everyday it feels like it.Motherhood is no Sprint, but it really is a marathon. The difference on the journey of motherhood is to make memories along the way and enjoy moments with the kids. I mean truly enjoy quality time with the kids. 

I spend so many days and nights with my kids but so much of the time is not quality. I strive all the time for true quality with each kid. Very often I complain about this to my dear friend stacey and she cracks up. 

Well my effort to make some holiday stress is failing miserably. My house feels like and smells like a cookie factory...

I am posting my melting snowman cookie for you to give it a try.

Directions are as follows:

Use sugar cookie dough

Smash a ball of dough flat( It does not have to be perfect ) 

Bake as would for any sugar cookie recipe

Allow to cool

Make icing and use back of spoon to coat the cookie

Allow to dribble over sides

Place 2-3 marshmallows on a plate and microwave for about 10secs

( watch carefully ) 

Do not let marshmallow double in size

Place on cookie

Once dry , decorate as desired

Let your imagination run wild

I used gel pen tubes from Walmart which made the decorating fun and easy.


We have had quiet a bit of snow lately but it all melts so fast. There has been a ton of rain which made for slushy snow and bad road conditions. Well we have made our own melting snowman inside but these are yummy..Take a look.

We have some sad melting snowmen

He is being so careful...

I love the excitement and wonder in kids...

Ready to eat his work of art ...

She is so happy with the snowmen...Well we found a way to make a snowman since the snow outside is slushy too.

YUM YUM !!!

My little helper...

Happy little girl 

off with his head

Frost lost his head Oh No !!

Gel pens $3.50

Marshmallows $1.59

Powdered sugar $ 1.29

The memories and time with your kids PRICELESS !!!

Give it a try and go make some memories with your kids.

Thanks for stopping by.